Customer Reviews

Kitchen Privileges : A Memoir

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Mary Higgins Clark has been a best selling author of suspense for what seems forever though her first book was a bio of George and Martha Washington. Ms. Clark returns to the world of non-fiction with an autobiography that may be her best work to date. Ms. Clark warmly discusses her life growing up in the Bronx, a very harsh one due the Depression. Even more heartwarming is her "courtship" and first marriage that should have turned Ms. Clark into a romance writer instead of the queen of suspense. She follows this up with the tragedy of suddenly raising children, as a widow with income problems until her first sale brings in needed cash. Finally, she discusses her second chance at love with her second marriage.

Throughout the book, Ms. Clark displays her love for writing without padding fluff or an outrageous scandal. Instead the author's myriad of fans and readers who enjoy a well written insightful biography will take delight with this encouraging story that does not apologize for Ms. Clark following her dreams and encourages others to do likewise. For attaining one's dreams is how to attain happiness.

Harriet Klausner

When an author achieves the success of Mary Higgins Clark, readers might assume her own personal story came wrapped in a neat package like one of her mysteries. But as all of Mary Higgins Clark's devoted fans know, she was not published till long after she was widowed with five young children. In KITCHEN PRIVILEGES, her memoir, she tells her remarkable story. We are often skeptical (and rightly so) about success stories; they can be a little too good to be true. But when confronted with Mary Higgins Clark's resilience, drive and determination, you will want to jump up from your chair --- and cheer her success.

Clark's writing here has the same honest, breezy style that makes her books such fun to read. Mary grew up in an Irish neighborhood in the Bronx where family was everything. Her dad died when she was still in grammar school, forcing the family to change its lifestyle quickly. Her mom took in boarders, offering them "Kitchen Privileges," which is where the book got its title. Life in the Bronx for Mary meant hours at the kitchen table listening to her aunts talk about family stories. Many of these became the characters and grist for her later stories.

Later in life she moved to New Jersey with her husband and young family. Both the Bronx and New Jersey have given comedians and jokesters plenty of material. As Mary says, "It has always amused me that I've had to defend the two places where I've spent most of my life, the Bronx and New Jersey."

Mary loved to write and she loved to read, and she approached life with a jaunty style that kept her striving for success --- and achieving it.

She also loved to act and, for a while, subsidized her family's income with appearances in television commercials. The highlight was a commercial for Fab laundry detergent that ran on I Love Lucy and several daytime soap operas. It was quite an achievement for the girl who never got a speaking part in the grammar school school play! Wouldn't you love to see that commercial today?

Her husband Warren was a man with whom she shared both love and laughter. Though they had known each other their entire childhood, their courtship was nothing short of whirlwind. Their first date came soon after Pan Am hired her as a stewardess. Hungry for travel, she knew this was a way to see the world. On their first date he told her he knew they were going to be married, "Fly for a year. Get it out of your system. I'll take my mother to drive-in movies when you're away. We'll get married at Christmas."

Mary and Warren bottled up a lot of wonderful times into their short years together. Sadly he died of a heart condition in his early 40s, leaving her with five small children. The love and respect they had for one another got her through many a dark day in the years ahead. Working at a job writing radio shows, commuting, attending night school at Fordham and trying to keep her young family happy and worry-free required a lot of energy.

Recognizing that writing was something she always wanted to pursue, she began to rise at 5AM to write before her children awoke. Her first book, ASPIRE TO THE HEAVENS, which was re-published earlier this year as MOUNT VERNON LOVE STORY earned her $1,500, less the 10% commission. Her next book WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN brought her success --- the paperback was published and landed on The New York Times bestseller list. Her career as a novelist was on her way.

My favorite story in the book came the day her second book deal was made. I am not going to share it here lest I spoil it for readers. I read those pages and imagined how she felt when she finally hit the place she had hoped to get to. For anyone who has ever worked hard for success, I dare you to read that section dry-eyed.

I have had the pleasure to meet Mary Higgins Clark on more than one occasion. Each time she has been wonderful company and our conversation has been filled with her great humor. She is as good as listener as she is a storyteller, a skill honed at the kitchen table so many years ago. She is the kind of person to whom you wish endless good things and happiness for all that she has given to people.

--- Reviewed by Carol Fitzgerald

As a young teenager, I discovered Mary Higgins Clark's first thriller "Where are the Children?" I was hooked. Although Clark has never been exceptionally deep or thought-provoking in her novels, she never fails to entertain. Her writing is concise and quick-moving, her plots full of intrigue and suspense.

I picked up "Kitchen Privileges" hoping for insight into Clark's background and the foundations of her writing career. In typical fashion, she skims through the decades of her long and rich life with entertaining anecdotes and brief glimpses of grief. She never fails to keep the pages moving, but she left me feeling like I'd waited for a five-course meal and discovered some tasty appetizers instead.

If you are a diehard Clark fan, you'll enjoy this opportunity to understand her a bit more. She gives us her life story in the same manner she gives us a fictional work--short, sweet, and not particularly filling. I was hoping for something deeper.

Over the years, I have always enjoyed reading books by Mary Higgins Clark. So when I saw Kitchen Privleges, it immediately grabbed my interest.

The book begins with Mary as a young girl, growing up in the Bronz. She always knew she wanted to be a writer, and the gift of storytelling was a part of Mary's Irish ancestry. It followed naturally then that she would use her sharp eye, keen intelligence, and inquisitive nature to create stories about the people and things around her.

Along with all Americans, those who lived in New York City's borough of the Bronx suffered during the Depression. In this time, Mary's father died, her mother, deciding to open the family home to boarders, placed a discreet sign next to the front door that read, Furnished Rooms, Kitchen Privleges. Very shortly, the first in a succession of tenants arrived: a couple dodging bankruptcy who moved in with their wild-eyed boxer; a teacher who wept endlessly over her lost love; a deabeat who tripped over a lamp while trying to sneak out in the middle of the night.

The story continues from there all about the family's struggle to make ends meet. Mary also had many jobs before becoming the author she is today. She wrote many short stories first before writing real novels, and spoke of her many rejections before finally finding a publisher to accept her work.

She had two other brothers. One died in World War II, the other one became very ill and passed away at a young age. Later, she married Warren Clark, and had five children with him. One of which, Carol, is an author today, following in her mom's footsteps.

The book is very interesting and informative on one of the very best mystery-suspense authors today.

Kitchen Privileges is the memoir written by Mary Higgins Clark's which begins with her childhood. Clark, the prolific mystery author introduces her readers to her parents, brothers a there early life in the Bronx. Surrounded by a large Irish family, Mary, relates a wonderful childhood until the death of her father. Her mother hard pressed to earn money took in boarders with advertisement of an "available room with kitchen privileges, " which we learn annoyed their neighbors. From her early childhood, we then learn about her job as a flight attendant, then marriage to John Clark and the birth of her five children. Death takes her husband at a young age and now the book goes on to describe Mary's early efforts at finding a job and then writing her first book. The end of the book hurriedly tells her readers about her great success at publishing umpteen popular books, some of which have also been made into TV movies. Unfortunately the end was written in a matter of pages as she talks of her marriage later in life and playing with her grandchildren. This along with the weak writing may be the failing of the book. The end was rushed and the writing was almost as if Clark was giving an oral history on paper rather than then editing and polishing. She also spent little time on the more emotional aspects of her life as she was off and running to the next part of her life.

Once an avid reader of Clark in the last number of years I have tired of her formula books which are same old, same old. This memoir is no exception. While her rise to fame is well known by many, this book left me hungering for a bit more substance. But on the other hand it does provide a glimpse of her life if only the Cliff Notes version.

I listened to the CD version (unabridged). I am usually not all that fond of autobiographies, but I found this one highly entertaining, with many funny personal stories. It was also honest and real. This is the life story of someone who too often was given lemons, but always chose to make lemonade. I enjoyed every minute. She brings you right into her world. Incidentally, listening to the CD was also wonderful because the author did the recording, so she knew just where to put the emphasis.

A member of my church loaned me this book and to be frank, I wasn't all that interested in it. I had never read anything by Mary Higgins Clark before, and why did a writer name her book after a kitchen anyway? I was also intent on reading the Elsie Dinsmore books, and so put this book down, thinking that I'll return it after a week or so.

Two weeks passed and I finally realized that I should at least make a seventy-something woman happy by reading it and so I began reading it after reading another borrowed book, "The Secret Life of Bees" (see my review on that superb novel). From Chapter One, I was hooked.

Mary Higgins Clark writes her story with charm, wit and detail. She tells us the story of her childhood in the 1940s, the death of her father, her first jobs, her marriage and the births of her five children. She discusses her dream of becoming a writer and I can relate to this. I love to write, but my work is either rubbish or incomplete or both.

However, the book was very short and left me asking some questions. She's written a lot of books, but only goes into detail about writing two of them-one of which was a failure. The epilogue leaves you asking questions that she doesn't answer, especially since she devotes an entire sentence to her second, failed marriage. Wow...

Despite these flaws, I am going to read Mary Higgins Clark's fictional works and see if they are as well-written as this book is. I encourage any aspiring writer to read this book.

I have been a fan of Mary Higgins Clark since junior high school when I first read, "A Cry in the Night". As a 31-year old working mother of two, I barely have time to read anything leisurely anymore! Over the years I have read many of her books, but I have found this one the most entertaining to date. This book brought me to tears on more than one occasion. This is a truly inspiring human story of love and loss that many people will relate to. I applaud her determination in making all of her dreams come true. I have forwarded the book to a dear aunt who writes short stories to give her some encouragement. I hope this review has been helpful.

Mary Higgins Clark is one of my favorite fiction writers (I've read all her books)...but my favorite kinds of books are biographies/autobiographies and when I found out about this book I read it as soon as I could. Her true story is incredible. I was amazed at how much tragedy this woman has endured, yet continues to move forward in her life. It is inspiring to the Nth degree. I was feeling somewhat depressed over the holidays, missing my parents who'd died 5 years ago, as well a feeling sorry for myself for some other things, but as I read this book, I realized I needed to move forward in my life as well. I hope to always keep her true-life story in mind whenever I start feeling down. A few disappointments in the book: The book was too short. It was the type of book that I wanted to go on alot longer, I forced myself to take my time reading it because I didn't want it to end! It kind of moved too quickly. Higgins Clark doesn't expound much on her feelings; she could have elaborated more in many areas. (But perhaps this is why she's had so much success in life, because she doesn't get stuck in emotional traps). However, I finished the book wanting a more in-depth feel to the main character. If you've read one or more of her books, and especially if you, like me, check out the back cover of her fiction work where there's always a glossy photograph of Mary glamourously dressed and dripping in jewels, you should read the book. Over all, a quick, terrific read. P.S. Various family photos in the book a big plus.

Like everyone who visits bookstores I've seen Mary Higgins Clark's books. I never had the slightest inclination to pick one up until now. As a writer I'm always interested in how successful authors do it and when I saw this autobiography in the store I tried to purchase it. Alas, the store clerk refused to sell it to me. It was being held until November the 19th. This is the first time a bookstore has ever refused to sell me a book and I went home with my curiostiy piqued. When the 19th arrived I headed back and snatched up a copy.
As it turns out, Clark is an interesting woman, whose New York childhood and tender first marriage made her the writer she is today. After reading Kitchen Privileges I'm ready to check out her other works, starting with her first book on George & Martha Washington.